Like Never and Always

Like Never and Always begins abruptly and is disorienting to both the main character and the reader. Olivia, Liv to her friends, is riding in a car with her best friend Morgan and their boyfriends when suddenly there is a car accident. Olivia wakes up in the hospital and discovers that she's been pronounced dead and she now inhabits the body of her best friend. Now that is a killer of a summary isn't it? I had high expectations with as complicated of an idea that was. However, like I found most of Ann Aguirre's books to be, she pulls it off and turns it into quite the meaningful read. The story went by quickly for me because it was interesting and the writing was well done. I really felt for Olivia who was wrestling with a lot of different emotions: a dead best friend, being in someone else's body, and trying to come to terms with what that means moving forward. While I didn't necesssarily need to know a how or a why for the switching bodies, Aguirre does attempt to provide some type of explanation—whether it was satisfying or not, I'll leave that to the individual read to decide. I didn't really care, so I wasn't focused on that element. I think what made this story shine was the handling of Olivia understanding that you can never truly know someone, even if that person has been your best friend since childhood, and also getting to know herself better through the eyes of her boyfriend who grieves for her and her understanding of herself in comparison to how her best friend leads her life. The other standout was Clay, who is one of the romantic interests. He is the epitome of the type of boyfriend YA lovers are looking for: a misunderstood bad boy who is loving, sweet, kind, understanding, and supportive? Yes, please! All in all, if you can suspend your judgment over some of the weirder moments (there's a moment with Morgan's father that's kind of like...,what?) and judge it for it's handling of love and friendship? It's a great read.

Thanks Netgalley and the publishers for providing this book for an honest review.